Comment. 463 



education of the public which the College has entered upon, may 

 also accomplish the repeal of that clause- 

 It is rather interesting- to note that one of the bulletins gives 

 Governor Sulzer's justification in signing the Bill appropriating 

 for this College, in which he carefully and studiously avoids any 

 mention of the forest department in Cornell University, which in 

 the meantime drew a $100,000 building through the same Legis- 

 lature. 



EmpIvOyment for Foresters. 



The Allgemeine forst- und Jai^d-Zcitmig for ^lay, 1913, re- 

 peats the warning against overcrowding in the profession which 

 was briefed in Forestry Quarterly, Vol. XI, page, 121. This 

 warning is especially directed against the private career in which 

 the opportunities for employment are very restricted so that the 

 outlook for remunerative positions is well-nigh hopeless. For 

 every available opening in private forestry there are scores of 

 well qualified applicants so that completion of forestry curricula 

 and all the expenses incident to the academic training may lead 

 to a mere clerkship or actually force well-trained men into other 

 fields of activity. 



Even in America there is a similar danger of overcrowding in 

 the profession, and, while a certain amount of competition for 

 positions is undoubtedly beneficial to the quality of incumbents, 

 an overproduction of foresters is to be deplored since it will 

 inevitably hurt the profession, entirely aside from the injustice 

 done young men by encouraging them to spend time and money 

 in equippmg themselves for a profession that has no room for 

 most of them. 



It is well enough to be optimistic over the possibilities of for- 

 estry in this country. It is even better to take heed of actual 

 conditions which confront the neophyte. The cold, one might 

 even say, the chilling facts are as follows : 



The estimated number of students annually graduated from 

 forest schools in the United States during recent years is 150 to 

 200. The number taking Civil Service examinations for the 

 position of forest assistant in the Federal Forest Service was ap- 

 proximately 160 in 19 12. The number of men appointed by the 

 Forest Service in 1912, out of a register of eligibles numbering 

 86, was as follows : Permanent appointments, 35, temporary ap- 

 pointments 21, no appointments 30. Practically all of the 21 



